The Dreamer

The Dreamer is a malevolent entity that existed for even longer than the Eridians have. It is the only known creature with a natural connection to the Infinite, hinted by its unique glowing gold eyes that possessed an "aura of intrusive observation".

It is described as "like staring into midnight itself" and a "bleak embodiment", from which "coldness emanated". It produced "oddly humane growling" that unnerved those who fought it due to the concept that there was something human and intelligent about it.

The creature comes from the race called "Dreamers", the last of an ancient, prehistoric, species from the beginning of the universe. They died out almost entirely millenia before the Eridians appeared on Pandora, although it is unknown how or why this happened. It is suspected that the Seraphs may have had something to do with this, which the Empress once hinted.

The Dreamer was imprisoned within a Vault, after turning on the Eridians, and remained chained there until Amelia Rye became its host and began directing her brother towards the Vault. Upon entering the Vault, Amelia, now controlling the Dreamer through its focusing diadem, broke free of its chains and fought the Vault Hunters.

Eventually, it was defeated through destroying the purple crystal that stabilised its molecular structure. This cut off Amelia's connection to it, causing the creature to collapse from Infinite energy deprivation. This was not before it was able to kill Gaige.

When the Vault Monster finally dissolved, its shadow appearance disappated into the Vault. Amelia claimed it is now just "a million, million dispersed particles within the outer void".

Birth
The Dreamer's origin is not entirely known, as its species is billions of years old. It was born an indeterminate time towards a mysterious extinction event that wiped out the species of Dreamers, apart from the Dreamer itself. It is unclear how the Dreamer survived the event, though it may have been its hibernation process that could have helped. It is unknown what exactly happened to the rest of its species.

Eridian Contact
At some point, millenia after the supposed extinction event, the Eridians came into contact with the Dreamer after accidently causing it to exit its hibernation process deep in the crust of Pandora. It rose out of the crust, causing extreme tectonic activity in the form of powerful earthquakes and destructive volcanoes. This drew the Eridians' attention, as they managed to subside the chaos, and met the Dreamer.

The Dreamer, part of an intelligent species, demanded for an explanation for the premature exit of its slumber, and the Eridians explained that their mining quarries may have interacted with the Dreamer and caused it to awaken. Aware it had been thousands of years, the Dreamer realised its race had all but died out, and Pandora had advanced during that time, history having forgotten the ancient race.

Witnessing the mysterious abilities the creature exhibited, they requested that they run tests on it, to which the Dreamer consented. The Dreamer purposefully hid its connection to the Infinite however, masking its energy signature as its race had the strong philosophy that the energy was only meant to be harnessed by Dreamers alone. This came from the belief that only Dreamers could handle the sheer power of the Infinite.

Going Rogue
Copious experiments and tests slowly drove the Dreamer insane, almost feral, and the Eridians eventually attempted to reverse engineer part of the Dreamer's shadowy composition to create shadow warriors of their own. This backfired as the shadow warriors created were used by taking a part of the Dreamer's mind, causing it to go mad from controlling numerous entities at once, and used them against the Eridians.

To combat the creature, whose molecular structure was beginning to destabilise, the Eridians invented a control diadem that could force the creature to keep its mind coherent and under their will. This failed and the creature collapsed and was presumed deceased.

Vault Imprisonment
After its collapse, the Dreamer was placed in suspended animation. However, the Eridians later identified a mysterious energy signature emanating from the creature, and began running tests on it. They discovered how to harness this energy, which they named the Infinite, and invented Eridium.

Further testing on the Dreamer revealed that the energy signature it was giving off was starting to tie its molecular structure back together, using the control crystal that now served that purpose instead. They then imprisoned it within the newly-constructed Vault of the Dreamer but were unable to remove the purple gem in its head, which they realised now drew from the Infinite as well.

Possession
The Dreamer, lying dormant within the Vault, was eventually possessed by Amelia Rye after her soul was reinvigorated following the Genisys Project. She passed into the control diadem, which still served the purpose of controlling the creature, and became the host of the Dreamer. This granted her near-perfect connection to the Infinite, and allowed her to send messages telepathically to her brother and Gaige. As a result, the consciousness of the Dreamer degraded even further to being completely unintelligible and acting on base instincts.

Defeat
The Dreamer was encountered thousands of years later by Matt Rye, and his Crimson Raider friends. They fought the Dreamer on Matt's birthday, during which it almost killed all of the Vault Hunters, until the Anomaly was able to turn the tide and dislodge the control gem in its forehead. Without the gem, the Dreamer was no longer under control by Amelia, so eventually destabilised and collapsed into a shadowy mist.

Biology
The Dreamer's biology is largely unknown. It is comprised on some sort of shadowy material, perhaps even made of shadows themselves, but how this works exactly is unclear. The Dreamer's race appears to be entirely incorporeal, probably due to the basis that it relies on the Infinite to function, so has no need for a physical body. However, the Dreamer does exhibit a physical effect on its surroundings, as it was able to casually throw around the Vault Hunters with its tentacles, suggesting it can manipulate its own material composition. It is known that Infinite energy can do this, shown through Matt's Chronokinesis.

The Dreamer does not require base human functions such as food consumption, hydration, sleep or respiration to survive, and likely has an indefinite lifespan, or at least an extremely long one. It is also unknown how the Dreamer's race reproduces, although it is likely asexual as it comes from the beginning of the universe, before sexual reproduction ever evolved.

Additionally, the Vault Monster can shape-shift and manipulate its own appearance, sprouting tentacles and arachnid-like limbs as weaponry and manoeuvring around, or shapes like cylinders for different types of attacks. It appeared to have some difficulty keeping its form when it first escaped its chains in the Vault, however it quickly adapted and used its inherently unstable form to its advantage.

Along with this shape-shifting, the Dreamer could deploy the shadow warriors, an extension of itself, while the creature itself retreated to heal its wounds.

The Dreamer's species has a natural connection to the Infinite, although it is unknown how or why. It is thought that the Dreamers were the natural physical tethers of the Infinite to Midgard. With the only remaining Dreamer being cut off from Midgard and then destroyed, there are no more beings with natural connections to the Infinite. The closest is this is perhaps the Eridians native to the current universe, who have been using the Infinite the second longest.

Powers

 * Natural Connection to the Infinite: The Dreamer is connected to the Infinite in a way unlike any other user, in a way that is a product of its species biology and thus has masterful use of it. It utilises the Infinite to manifest a series of powers.
 * Telepathy: The Dreamer was able to read minds and communicate accordingly, as it read the Anomaly's mind, and Amelia's, in order to figure out what the Vault Hunter's significance was. The Vault Monster could also unleash psionic attacks upon enemies.
 * Beam Attack: The Dreamer was able to conjure a beam of Infinite energy from its control diadem, which was extremely volatile to touch. It is believed that the energy was the Indigo variant, which served as an energy vacuum so could suck out all forms of energy from those struck with it.
 * Recuperation: The Vault Monster could also use of the power of the Infinite to heal its worlds and draw from its stores of the energy from all areas of the Infinity Spectrum.
 * Adaptation: Although it took a while, the Dreamer could eventually adapt to its weaknesses and limit the damage caused by it. It could adapt to its vulnerability to shock, although not completely and was still weakened by the elemental type. Doing so sapped at its energy and left it more vulnerable to physical attack.
 * Infinite energy conversion: Apparently, the Dreamer could convert different forms of Infinite energy. Amelia Rye, its host, later kept this ability after escaping the control crystal within it.
 * Specific Timeline control: Another power also kept by Amelia, the Dreamer could supposedly control the personal timelines of its targets, accelerating them ahead and causing them to age to death, or regressing them into nothing. This presumably be channeled through its purple gem, creating a beam of red like Amelia did when using the ability.

Weaknesses

 * Shock: The Dreamer was significantly weakened by shock damage, due to its free-flowing molecular structure allowing electrons to easily pass through it and cause damage to its control gem in the centre of its forehead. The Dreamer adapted to this, becoming less weakened to the elemental damage type, however it still retained the weakness and never completely negated its effect.

Equipment

 * Control Crystal (formerly): Originally constructed by the Eridians, the Dreamer possessed a purple gem in the centre of its forehead which maintained its molecular structure, and allowed the soul housed inside to operate the Vault Monster. It was eventually destroyed by the combined efforts of Gemini and Crimson Raider Vault Hunters.

Trivia

 * According to its data file seen once in Someone Else, the Dreamer is around 50 feet tall, the height of the base of the Empire State Building.
 * Since the Dreamer is comprised of shadows, it technically has a negative mass.
 * The Dreamer's shadows move at the speed of darkness (speed of light), which is just below 300,000,000 m/s. This is likely why Matt could not dodge them unless he stopped time.
 * The Dreamer is based on the common phobia of the dark, and what may lurk within it, revolving around the idea that the dark itself is the threat, rather than what hides there. It also comes from the frequent fear that young children have of their own shadow, as it is unexplained to them and continues to follow them.